Ferry services between Busan (South Korea) and Tsushima Island (Japan) resumed on Saturday, February 25th, after a 3-year suspension due to the COVID crisis.
The Busan Port Authority said 2 ferries had departed from a port in the southeastern city at 08:30 a.m. and 10:10 a.m., and had arrived at the port of Hitakatsu on the southwestern Japanese island 90 minutes later.
Tsushima is Japan's closest island to the Korean Peninsula.
With the resumption, Port Busan has reopened all 4 sea routes with Japan that were halted back in April 2020 due to the crisis.
Busan restarted ferry services with Fukuoka on November 4th, 2022, followed by the reopening of the routes with Shimonoseki and Osaka.
The Busan-Tsushima route was served by 11 ships and accounted for 60% of the sea passenger traffic Busan-Japan.
A pair of South Korean boats - PanStar Tsushima Lin (PanStar Group) and Nina (Starline Co.) - will operate on the route once per day on Saturdays and Sundays, carrying a max of 100 passengers per voyage, the port authority revealed.